When the time finally came to close the heavily trafficked emergency room at the historic Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, doctors and nurses were presented with one last challenge: they couldn’t find the light switch.

“The lights had never been turned off,” said hospital CEO Pete Delgado. “Some of the physicians were taking pictures of the emergency room’s waiting area because they’d never seen it empty.”

On Friday, the hospital that was once the nation’s busiest had its areas of clinical treatment closed, department by department, as patients were moved from the hospital referred to as “old General” into its replacement facility. The old Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center building will house some offices, but won’t be used to see patients anymore.

The massive old main hospital structure has loomed over East Los Angeles since the early 1930s, visible from many parts of the city. For many years TV viewers saw its exterior on the soap opera “General Hospital.” But it was badly damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The new Inpatient Tower is a $1 billion project that has been in the works for years. Its 600 beds and 130 emergency room bays will house patients from the old General Hospital and Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Delgado said that the day was emotional for some employees who had worked in the building for decades. More than 300 patients were moved on Friday, and about 70 others were to be moved today.

The continual worry around the facility has been whether it would be able to meet the ever-increasing demand for emergency care in East Los Angeles. County supervisors tussled for years over the number of beds at the facility.

At full capacity, the old hospital had more than 2,000 beds, but required costly seismic upgrades to continue serving that patient load. Rather than altering the existing building, parts of it were closed down and county supervisors voted to build a new facility.

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